'You view child porn, pay a 100eur fine', says virus

Windows users being extorted by malicious software into handing over money is nothing new. Fake anti-virus utilities in particular are notorious for warning about non-existent threats and making a computer very difficult to use (if not impossible) until a "license" is bought in order to remove the "infection".

Ransomware on the other hand is even more sly. You can find, for example, ransomware that will scramble documents and other data on a users' hard disk drive, and will only decrypt the information if the user pays up. This kind of infection is particularly nasty, because removing the ransomware infection might not help to retrieve your original data, and who knows, maybe paying up won't either.

Even more nasty is the use of emotional blackmail to force a user to get out a credit card. Germany's Federal Criminal police office, the Bundeskriminalamt, is warning Germans about a virus doing the rounds now that accuses victims of viewing "juvenile pornography."

It pops up a window on the victim's computer, and locks out access to the system. The interface is designed to look like it was prepared by the Germany's Federal Office for Information Security (BKI) and the office responsible for copyright infringement prosecution in the country.

It displays a picture of a child, and asserts that sex abuse images of the child have been viewed on the computer. It also claims that the computer has been used to download and spread pirated content, and demands that the user pay a €100 fine for the criminal acts, or else the computer will remain locked.

The German police have warned the public about the "digital extortion" and said that no user affected by the virus should pay under any circumstances.

8 user comments

Quote:The German police have warned the public about the "digital extortion" and said that no user affected by the virus should pay under any circumstances.

Well who's fault is it in the first place idiots? You and the rest of copyright monopolists who set up these schemes for legal extortion in the first place. Is it really any surprise real criminals are using these easily spoofed Internet police procedures to scam money? Quick pay up, or the "cyber-police" will jump out of the monitor and arrest you, here comes the Internet sirens *wahahahahahaha* WE HAVE YOU IP, WE TRACE YOU, YOU PIRATE SCUM!

Quote:The German police have warned the public about the "digital extortion" and said that no user affected by the virus should pay under any circumstances.

Well who's fault is it in the first place idiots? You and the rest of copyright monopolists who set up these schemes for legal extortion in the first place. Is it really any surprise real criminals are using these easily spoofed Internet police procedures to scam money? Quick pay up, or the "cyber-police" will jump out of the monitor and arrest you, here comes the Internet sirens *wahahahahahaha* WE HAVE YOU IP, WE TRACE YOU, YOU PIRATE SCUM!

What are you on about? This has no legal grounds at all, unlike copyright. It's blatantly illegal extortion, much like the old SpySherrif Antivirus that made rounds so long ago.

Quote:The German police have warned the public about the "digital extortion" and said that no user affected by the virus should pay under any circumstances.

Well who's fault is it in the first place idiots? You and the rest of copyright monopolists who set up these schemes for legal extortion in the first place. Is it really any surprise real criminals are using these easily spoofed Internet police procedures to scam money? Quick pay up, or the "cyber-police" will jump out of the monitor and arrest you, here comes the Internet sirens *wahahahahahaha* WE HAVE YOU IP, WE TRACE YOU, YOU PIRATE SCUM!

What are you on about? This has no legal grounds at all, unlike copyright. It's blatantly illegal extortion, much like the old SpySherrif Antivirus that made rounds so long ago.

Lack reading comprehension much? I didn't say it had legal ground. I was making a point that when people get used to being legally extorted by silly 'Internet police' and private companies, they can easily get scammed later by fake ones.

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 02 Feb 2013 @ 12:07

Quote:The German police have warned the public about the "digital extortion" and said that no user affected by the virus should pay under any circumstances.

Well who's fault is it in the first place idiots? You and the rest of copyright monopolists who set up these schemes for legal extortion in the first place. Is it really any surprise real criminals are using these easily spoofed Internet police procedures to scam money? Quick pay up, or the "cyber-police" will jump out of the monitor and arrest you, here comes the Internet sirens *wahahahahahaha* WE HAVE YOU IP, WE TRACE YOU, YOU PIRATE SCUM!

What are you on about? This has no legal grounds at all, unlike copyright. It's blatantly illegal extortion, much like the old SpySherrif Antivirus that made rounds so long ago.

Lack reading comprehension much? I didn't say it had legal ground. I was making a point that when people get used to being legally extorted by silly 'Internet police' and private companies, they can easily get scammed later by fake ones.

I don't lack reading comprehension, that's just an awful argument against copyright. You're suggesting that we should do away with policing the internet in general because stupid people believe these "fake police" emails? These are probably the same people who send out emails beginning with "I am a Nigerian Prince" or those phone calls that ddp mentioned.

Just people preying on the ignorant. Even if "internet police" did not exist, I'm confident that these people would still throw away their money on other scams just as quickly.

Originally posted by ddp: or the phones calls from "Windows Technical Support" who say that your computer is infected & for $200 they will fix your problems, Not.

LOL...I used to just yell into the phone to "F-Off you scamming A-holes", but then I decided one day to see just how far & long I could string them along until they finally got wise and hung up...73 minutes, that's how long.
And I played big time idiot with the dude, took me 12 tries to find and open Admin tools & when I finally got into the Event Viewer I had TONS of ammo to play big dummy with. Kinda fun actually, the guy swore at me a couple of times and at the end he swore at me in his native language and hung up.
;)
I hope his long distance bill was astronomical!!

Someone told me once that theres a right and wrong, and that punishment would come to those
who dare to cross the line.
But it must not be true for jerk-offs like you.
Maybe it takes longer to catch a total asshole.